Death Ordered For Killer Of Moody Bible Student

May 31, 1986|By Linnet Myers.

After telling a hushed courtroom that he was morally opposed to the death penalty and would impose it only ``for retribution purely and simply,`` a Cook County Criminal Court judge Friday sentenced a 30-year-old man to die for murdering a Moody Bible Institute student.

As Scott stood before him, the judge ordered that the sentence be carried out ``at one minute after midnight on the morning of Aug. 4, 1986,`` which would be the second anniversary of Kent`s murder.

``Although I have sentenced you for retribution, I can`t allow you to leave this court without saying, may God have mercy on your soul,`` the judge told Scott.

Before imposing the sentence, Strayhorn spoke somberly. ``In 15-plus years as a judge, I have imposed the death penalty one time,`` he said.

``I am opposed to the imposition of the death penalty as a punishment because I have some moral antipathy that makes me believe that I, as a human being suffering from all of the frailties of any other human being, do not have a right to say who shall die and who shall live.``

At the death penalty hearing, Assistant State`s Attys. Peggy Frossard and Gil Grossi introduced evidence of other criminal acts in the defendant`s background.

A firefighter testified that in 1983 he heard a 64-year-old woman begging for her life after Scott raped her. The firefighter came to her aid, but the woman refused to testify against Scott and he was never charged with the rape, Frossard said.

Another woman testified that Scott robbed her in 1979 and tried to force her into a building. A minister came by and saved her, she said. Another woman described how Scott stalked her on the same night that he murdered Kent.

Kent`s mother, Margaret, told Judge Strayhorn that ``our family has been in a state of depression, a lot of sadness. . . . There`s been a lot of difficulty in attaching ourselves to the world outside.``

Kristin Kent, a 24-year-old missionary student, was walking home to her dormitory on Aug. 4, 1984, when Scott followed her and grabbed her. He tried to rob her, then forced her into a driveway where he raped and strangled her. Kent was also beaten and bite marks covered her body. The marks matched Scott`s teeth, according to the testimony of a dental expert.

Public Defenders Robert Lee and Donald Paull argued that a mentally ill finding showed that Scott was an emotionally disturbed man and should not receive the death penalty.

Last month, a jury found Scott guilty of murder and attempted armed robbery.